Posted in News by Rachel - Jan 22, 2010
Paper Crisis – the end of local news?
Exclusive: This week’s distrubition of the Salford Advertiser to homes is to be it’s last.
Owners – the M.E.N / Guardian Media Group claim it will still be available online, and in “quality newsagents”. As Salford Youth Council reported last September in our newsletter – many newsagents in Salford stopped selling the Advertiser months ago and many claim they weren’t even told why. Most, if not all of them continue to sell the Manchester Evening News.
As a city-wide newspaper, the Advertiser (and others it has merged with over the years) has always been delivered directly to people’s homes. Not every home gets a copy due to their geographic location or lack of rounds in their area, but it has always been a FREE and accessible way for many local people to hear about important developments that directly effect them.
It is estimated around one third of all homes in Salford do not have internet access, the availablity of digital tv news and radio is on the rise but free papers are often the only access to local news to so many, often disadvatanged people.
Job Losses for the Lowest Paid
Now many of the city’s most lowest-paid workers (many of them younger people and the elderly) are out of a job or any alternative income. Considering newspapers are legally allowed to pay them just £2.50 an hour it is surprising the lowest paid workers have been dropped with only one weeks notice. – Hence why, instead of the familiar paper-round staff delivering this week, you will may have witnessed Royal Mail staff delivering the Advertiser’s final edition to homes this week.
However unavoidable this decision may seem for the M.E.N media group considering the poor financial climate, - the almost end of the city’s free, weekly newspaper can only serve to make things worse.
Salford Youth Council believes this decision to end paper-rounds will be detrimental to ALL residents of Salford.
Perhaps the Salford Star will be resurrected soon as a printed edition and take it’s place?
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Update: 26th Jan 2010
Despite some confusion at first, it appears we were correct all along. It took until Tuesday to get an explanation. We did attempt to get more answers from M.E.N Media’s distribution office before this article was written, but no-one was available to comment. Over the weekend M.E.N employees were telling people to ignore our article as it “isn’t true”.
The long and short of it is… if your street/block/neighbourhood is POOR (apparently that means not attractive to advertisers) then you won’t get a free local newspaper… but lucky you if your home is “economically attractive” enough. If not, maybe you could move house?
Here is a statement issued 26/01/10 from the M.E.N Media Group:
“Every two years or so M.E.N Media takes a detailed look at its coverage maps and restructures the distribution pattern of its titles. In order to remain in the marketplace and attractive to advertisers we alter the households that receive a home delivered free newspaper.
“We have just completed the process of informing our readers of the small changes to our distribution giving them details of how they can receive their local news going forward.
“The changes affect a small number of homes across Greater Manchester and our household penetration remains amongst the highest in the UK.”
That’s an awful lot of homes…
Posted in Democracy by Salford Youth Council - Sep 17, 2009
Salford Youth Council members met Martin Bell at a public meeting organised by the Hazel Must Go! campaign last night.
The former anti-corruption MP and BBC Correspondent had been invited to the event in Eccles to share his experience of standing as an Independent candidate and engaged in a lively (and at times heated!) debate with members of the local community.
The campaign intends to propose alternatives to reelecting current Salford MP Hazel Blears at the next election and is calling for her to stand down, claiming people have lost confidence in her ability to serve Salford following on from the expenses scandal and failure to improve the lives of local people.
Nadine spoke about how local youth services are deteriorating, blaming a widespread culture of mis-management and lack of investment in quality services for children and young people. Alex expressed her views on party politics as a young person growing up in Britain today, and co-chair David Henry highlighted the reasons for apathy amongst younger voters who feel under-represented and confused by the electoral system.
After the meeting we also got a chance to quiz Martin Bell and members from a variety of political parties including the local Labour Party (including a number of Hazel Blears supporters), Councillor Norman Owen of the Liberal Democrats, Richard Carvath (Independent), the Socialist and Socialist Workers Party, RESPECT and the Green Party. We couldn’t find any Conservatives (although Cllr Iain Lindley stated on his twitter page this evening that he doesn’t see this campaign as “helping the people of Salford”) and not surprisingly the BNP were also no where to be seen!
Towards the end of what was a very packed out evening of discussions and speakers there were a number of public votes on proposals for taking the campaign forward. We were particulary supportive of the campaign’s proposal to engage with young people and reinnovgorate their interest in local politics.
You can watch an exclusive video interview with Martin Bell here.
Salford Youth Council is an indepedent, grass-routes youth organisation run by and young people. We are non-party political and do not endorse any particular political organisation or candidate. We aim to engage young people in local democracy and provide opportunities for our peers to get involved in the decision making process.
Posted in Transport by Rachel - Sep 15, 2009
We are supporting the campaign for FREE public transport right across Greater Manchester.
Salford Youth Council believes public transport is an essential public service, which should be publicly owned and run. We want to see its improvement and expansion for the benefit of its users, to help remove traffic from our roads, to reduce pollution and CO2 emissions, and to protect pedestrians, cyclists and other road users.
In a recent survey, 72% of people said they would only give up their cars if they had access to free public transport, we are also campaigning for all public transport to be free at the point of use, to help get people out of their cars, and to help put money currently spent on transport back into ordinary people’s pockets. We believe what we are calling for should be financed out of a progressive system of general taxation which sees the rich pay the most, and the poorest pay nothing at all.
Public meetings are being held (currently at the Friends Meeting House in Manchester City Centre) to organise the campaign. The next event will be on Thursday 17th September at 7:30pm.
The campaign is also supported by the Fire Brigades Union, UNISON, the National Union of Teachers (NUT), UNite, the Professional Footballers Association and the National Union of Journalists. More information can be found at http://www.freepublictransport.org.uk/
Posted in Projects by Salford Youth Council - Sep 15, 2009
Salford Youth Council believes the lack of access to the internet is playing a significant role in holding back access to opportunites. Young people tend to be most disadvantaged by this as the internet can play a crucial role in their educational attainment and access to otherwise difficult to access services such as peer support, advocacy and social opportunities.
Although many of them still have a computer, netbook or wifi enabled phone. Our survey of local young people revealed while many of them regularly use the internet at school or at friends houses they do not have a connection at home. Families tell us they would be more likely to invest in a computer at home if they had a free internet connection.
What are we calling for?
- Free WiFi internet access for the poorest communities in Salford.
- Partnerships with the public, private and voluntary sector to support local schemes.
- Encouragement for community groups to apply for ICT funding.
- Training and skills to enable all members of the community to get online.
So where do we start?
We have been campaigning to get the poorest areas of Salford connected first, with a focus on assisting large households getting online. Inner-city areas such as Broughton, Blackfriars, Charlestown, Kersal, Langworthy, Ordsall and Pendleton are areas identified with having the highest need, along with Irlam, Weaste and Little Hulton.
Broughton has been identified as the most deprived ward in the city of Salford. It is also the fifth poorest area of the country and has the highest rates of long-term unemployment and anti-social behaviour. 80% of children live in households entirely dependant on state benefits and GSCE attainment is substantially below the city and national average.
We believe free WiFi internet for disadvantaged local communities would be a remarkable step forward and play a major role in advancing social mobility of a very large number of people.
Support our campaign!
We will hear if our funding bid to bring free WiFi to the people of Broughton has been successful on 1st October 2009. We will also be announcing other areas to benefit from this project over the next few months.
For more information contact Rachel Cavendish or David Henry on 0161 408 2342 or drop us an email council@salfordyouth.org.uk
Visit our website: http://www.salfordyouth.org.uk
Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SalfordYouth
Join our Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=16276767259
Posted in Education by Salford Youth Council - Sep 14, 2009
Schools in Salford are under threat of closure.
Posted in Housing by Salford Youth Council - Sep 14, 2009
In Salford, like many areas of the country homes are now allocated via the controversial ” bidding cycle”. We believe this system is flawed and acts as a barrier for many at risk and vulnerable people in desperate need of rehousing.
Many people who are in fact homeless go straight to the bottom of the bidding list. You can of course “call in” to the Salford Property Shop, probably the only “shop” in Salford Precinct that has absolutely nothing to sell! From the outside this tense looking outpost looks like a letting agency, but there are no properties to rent! All you can do is get a copy of the latest list of properties available to bid for (which sometimes no properties you will qualify for even if you are homeless!). Although if you need to get yourself on the long waiting list going in to the property shop is your best and fastest way to do it as even if you apply over the phone or online you still need to send them your identification so calling in to the shop means you can do it all at once.
If you don’t take in your ID they’ll suspend your application very swiftly. Don’t forget lots of younger people especially those from poorer backgrounds don’t have the right identification such as a Passport or Driving license complicating things even further.
So just how long does it take to get a council house in the great city of Salford?
Even the council can’t tell you that, Waiting times are a mysterious and contentious subject. Any attempt to find out results in a blank face and the tiresome “can’t really say to be honest” and a shrug of the shoulders from fed up underpaid, poorly trained and demoralised ” advisors”. Even the name of the housing office “Property Shop” is misleading, it is not a shop! and it has no properties for sale or let! Anyone in need of rehousing is advised they’d be “better off” crashing on a friends floor, looking for a private landlord or making a four mile journey to leafy Swinton to make an appointment at the even more pointless and soul destroying home of Salford’s “Housing Advice and Support Services Team” known as Crompton House… – if its even open!
” Homeless Services” is based in Swinton for most people especially those living in the poorest areas of the city this is quite a trip. Along with the distance the opening times are quite tight and those who work or have children find it difficult to get an appointment or attend the drop in services. Once you do make contact the first appointment you have is an exercise at getting you back out of the door as quickly as possible. Council staff mislead people into providing information that means they are not technically classed as homeless (even though they have nowhere to live!).
There is only one person available at the counter with many people waiting a long time just to get the staff’s attention even if you ring the bell people are often left waiting. Appointments are frequently canceled due to staff sickness and shortages and cases sat on people’s desks are also frequently delayed for the same reason.
If you don’t go in and harass the front desk every day then sooner or later they forget about you, almost as if they assume your no longer in need of their services, where is their duty of care? This is not just limited to Salford, but things need to change, and FAST.
